2019 Power Rankings-Week 7
Introduction TRADE ALERT! Paddock 9 has traded Davonte Freeman to Sweet Dee for Juju Smith-Schuster. Now, I had already written most of these power rankings before the trade went down on Friday. And I had a joke about Juju where I called him PooPoo Stinky-Shoester. But I'm not going to make that joke now because I want to put positive energy into the world for this trade because I love it so much. This is perhaps my favorite trade in LOC history, and I'll tell you why: # No picks were traded. Both teams are looking to improve their teams for THIS SEASON, and they found players that were equally valued by their trade partner. # They traded players at different positions. NO COLLUSION. It agitates me when I see teams trade straight up a WR for a WR. You guys realize those trades make zero sense, right? If your trade partner values your WR so much that he's willing to trade straight up for another WR, he/she thinks they are pulling off a robbery and you should be requesting more out of that trade. Like, he literally thinks he is trading you a worse player for a better player. So why aren't you asking for more compensation? Either that or you know how stupid the trade is and it's collusion. But I digress. # Two players in the exact same situation: they are struggling in their roles as lead back/WR and have breakout potential in the second half of the year. Both are risks. Is Juju a WR1 in an offense led by a third string QB? I'm unsure. How has Freeman underwhelmed in an offense averaging 400 yards a game? He might just not be good. But one team needed a WR, the other needed an RB. And here we are. I wish nothing but the best for this trade. I hope both players do well and everyone is happy and it encourages more fair and balanced trades like this moving forward. That being said, I will trade a first round draft pick and my left nut for some WR help. Any takers? Series Recaps Big week for win streaks, as every winning team extended win streaks against their opponents. * Pain Train continues to own Garoppoblow Me (11-4). Next Matchup: N/A * The Shotti Bunch has more than doubled up RIPDab in series wins (13-6). Next Matchup: N/A * Duck Punchers wins the tie-breaker against Paddock 9 (9-8) Next Matchup: N/A * The Stupid Idiots sweeps the season series and grabs the lead in the franchise series vs. Sweet Dee (2-1). Next Matchup: N/A * ma ma momma said leads the series against Papa's Posse (10-6). Next Matchup: Week 12 Best Record Through Three Seasons Bell can still finish 18-21 at best and now 11-28 at worst. Keeper Corner Last year at this time we tallied everyone's keeper picks and how they had performed at the halfway point. I thought it was a good enough feature to repeat this year. Here is a look at last year's rankings through week 6: That's 2291.87 points for nine teams (Bell did not keep anybody). Now folks, I'm going to be honest: 2019 ain't pretty. Here is our keeper chart this year. 2134.09 this year, and ten teams instead of nine. Yikes. It's been a very weird year. Survivor Update Butt has been eliminated. Five teams remain! Only Zach has a strike. Monthly Meetings - Sweet Dee Here is this weeks chart showing which months Sweet Dee has played each team (minimum 3 seasons) in the LOC through the 2019 regular season: Stat Chat Today's chart of the week is the all-time W/L record for every team in league of champions history. These records combine both regular season and post-season. They do not differentiate between games won in the Consolation Tournament and the Festival of Champions, nor do they distinguish between games won in the main tournaments or the 3rd, 5th and 9th place games. Due to byes and varying results, most teams have a different number of total games. Updated through 10/18/19 Other stats of note: *The Duck Punchers is the first team ever to win 70 regular season games. *The Duck Punchers has a 3+ game win streak in every season. They now have a four game win streak in 2019, the 6th time in 9 years that they've accomblished this feat. *Bell of Da Ball has now gone 26 consecutive regular season weeks without back-to-back wins. This ties them for 4th all-time with ma ma momma said, who went from week 10, 2015 to week 9, 2017 without winning back-to-back games. *Garoppoblow Me has now lost more games in six weeks than they lost all of last season. *The Shotti Bunch becomes the first team to score over 200 points in ninety total games. Bust Watch Barkley missing time definitely hurts, but it seems that Bell of Da Ball will be getting him back this week and as predicted in last week's rankings, I think he is about to go on a tear (after this week when he will lose to Shotti in frustrating fashion). Power Rankings Anyone want to take a guess how this is all going to turn out? Sweet Dee is balling. She's 1-5. Shotti might have the worst team I've ever seen. They're 5-1. Yes, I just copied and pasted this intro from last week. This week I decided to highlight a random player on everyone's teams who is outscoring their first round draft pick. Spoiler alert: RIPDab does not have one such player. 1(1). The Duck Punchers (5-1) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: Derrick Henry Duck has a three game lead for a playoff spot and is looking like the team of old this season after many moons of middling success. It is only fitting that the league's two greatest dynasties of all time (one the regular season warrior with a 2014 Glory Bowl belt, the other the four-time champion Shotti), are 5-1 and in contention for the Commissioner's Cup. 2(2). RIPDab (4-2) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: None If any team has the potential to collapse in on itself after a hot 4-1 start, it's RIPDab. After this week, they face a surging Bell of Da Ball at full strength, and they still have remaining tough games against Duck and Paddock 9 to close the season. But more importantly, they don't believe in their own team. They do seem to have a smoke and mirrors roster created by the 50 PPG from McCaffrey. 3(4). Bell of Da Ball (3-3) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: Tyler Boyd Time to make a statement if you're a stupid idiot. They face the 2nd place team this week and then the 3rd place team, and then the 5th place team. Where they emerge after that three game stretch will define this 2019 campaign. 4(5). The Shotti Bunch (5-1) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: Tom Brady Okay, so it's not so random that the GOAT is outscoring anybody, but consider this: HE WASN'T EVEN DRAFTED! Anyway, that's the only nice thing I have to say about Shotti's team. Love you man, but fuck your team dawg. 5(6). Sweet Dee (1-5) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: Courtland Sutton The 110th overall pick, even taking away their game on Thursday night, is outscoring every WR taken in the first round. Pretty impressive. What's not impressive is this record. But Sweet Dee isn't ready to give up on the season just yet. They won Glory Bowl VIII after going 6-8 in the regular season, which means they might only need to go 5-3 to have another shot at the title. Totally doable the way this team has been scoring, but they need some luck on their side. If they can't beat Paddock, with no Mahomes and no Freeman, they are done. 6(3). Paddock 9 (3-3) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: None unless you call Patrick Mahomes Random I fucking cannot believe this shit with Mahomes. I'm going to be honest, it bums me out only because I hate people saying the Patriots catch all the breaks, as if they didn't beat Patrick Mahomes twice last year during his MVP season. But I digress. This is a bad spot for Paddock 9, who risks 3-4 after trading an active player to his opponent for a bye guy. 7(7). Papa's Posse (2-4) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: Phillip Lindsay Underwhelming start to week seven and a horrific October so far for Papa as this is starting to look like a lost season. 8(8). Garoppoblow Me (2-4) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: Royce Freeman The last time this team started 2-4 they played in a Glory Bowl. That is all. 9(9). Pain Train IR (3-3) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: DJ Chark Does anyone else think shart every time they hear the name DJ Chark? Anyway, Pain Train lucked his way to a victory on MNF due, once again, to a bonehead move by GBM. This team still does not have Davante Adams back but has the two best fantasy QBs in the game right now (with Mahomes sidelined). Moving one could be difficult but it might go a long way towards shoring up this roster. 10(10). ma ma momma said (2-4) Random Player Outscoring First Round Pick: None, but Cooper Cupp is close! They might be 2-4 (with the potential to be 3-4 and in a playoff spot by day's end), but let's give some credit where it's due. Momma made a trade in 2018 for Cooper Kupp, despite his injury, with the hopes that he could be a great keeper selection in 2019. That move paid off big time. Matchup of the Week - "Hit Me with Your Best Shotti" Something about Bell of Da Ball's season feels...different. They lead the league in scoring and they are the only team to have broken 200 in each of the last six weeks. They currently sit 4th in the standings and have yet to string together two wins in a row, but there are positive vibes coming out of that clubhouse. This week they lose Conner and Chubb to the bye, which hurts their chances, but they do get back Barkley. They've already proven they can win shorthanded and they are projected to win by 30 this week over The Shotti Bunch. The Shotti Bunch sucks. Let me just make that clear. They are being outscored by me, and I suck. So if I suck at I'm 2-4 and I'm outscoring Shotti and he's 5-1, obviously fantasy football is flawed as fuck and obviously he doesn't deserve a bye. So it is up to Bell of Da Ball to knock the former champ from his perch. And they have done so once before: This is the first of two pivotal matchups between these two title contenders. And holy shit, I did...I just called Bell of Da Ball a title contender. What a time to be alive. Other matchups this week: * Pain Train vs. ma ma momma said (7-6) * Paddock 9 vs. Sweet Dee (6-5) * RIPDab vs. Duck Punchers (5-4) * Garoppoblow Me vs. Papa's Posse (9-3) Three teams with a chance to tie things up in the franchise series. RIPDab can either jump into a three-way tie for first, or own the #2 bye spot outright with a win, while Duck can potentially stand alone at 6-1 depending on the outcome of the Shotti Bunch vs. Butt game. That 1 vs. 3 and 2 vs. 4 combo is a badass happy coincidence of the schedule (thanks to me). GBM vs. Papa is a desperation bowl game as both really need that 3rd win to stay in the hunt for a bubble spot in the tourney. The same can be said for momma's game vs. Pain Train. There is a scenario this season, due to my genius scheduling again, where the bottom five teams could eat away at each other's records all year long and a 5-win team might get the six seed. It has never happened before, but anything is possible with only three teams sitting above .500 through six weeks. The consolation tournament scaries are starting to set in for a few teams, and this week could make or break entire franchises. Another great week of action. Enjoy.